Lunenburg Phillies head to CNEBA championship series

CLINTON -- The Lunenburg Phillies could have suffered a loss in their marathon contest and still had a shot in Game 3, but they weren't taking any chances.

Instead, Lunenburg rolled out its veteran ace to resume Game 2 of its Central New England Baseball Association semifinal series, with the game tied 2-2 headed into the eighth inning. After the Phillies won Wednesday's opening game in the best-of-three series, the teams battled neck-and-neck in Game 2 on Thursday, before finally calling it a night when the contest was halted due to darkness.

When things picked up on Saturday, three timely hits in the ninth inning gave second-seeded Lunenburg a 4-2 lead, and ace Jeff Swedberg held on from there, as the Phillies advanced to the CNEBA title game with a semifinal sweep of No. 3 Ronnie's of Worcester.

Lunenburg will face fourth-seeded Blackstone Valley in the best-of-five title series after the Cats upset top-seeded Clinton in the other semifinal. Game 1 is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at the lower field at McLaughlin Park in Leominster, with the same time and location slated for contests on Wednesday and Thursday.

"The pressure was on us," Lunenburg manager Joe Ruth said. "We killed them the first game, and then we screwed it up (Thursday). I called Swedberg right after the game and said he was going in the eighth inning, and pitching as long as he could."

Swedberg, a 2004 graduate of the University of Hartford who has been with the Phillies for more than a decade and travels two and a half hours from Vermont for games, pitched two perfect 1-2-3 innings to lock down the Lunenburg defensive effort.

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He forced three groundouts, one flyout, and recorded two strikeouts for his six outs in two innings of work.

A starter for his entire career, Swedberg played a different role on Saturday when his team needed him most.

"I treated it like a start," Swedberg said. "I warmed up, prepped, and had the same mindset. It was just a normal game, I didn't know how else to approach it. The intensity level with higher, and I tried to picture it as being late in the game of a start."

Lunenburg stranded runners on the corners in the eighth inning, but took advantage in the ninth with the veteran-laden heart of its lineup coming to the plate.

Steve LaJoie started the inning with a double to left-center and, after a failed bunt attempt by the next batter, cleanup hitter Jon Belliard drilled a bomb to left-center field that bounced off the wall, allowing plenty of time for LaJoie to score and Belliard to take second, putting Lunenburg up 3-2.

"I hit the wall," Belliard said. "I was (upset), because the last time I was at-bat was in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and I struck out. They needed me there. I kept thinking I had to drive the ball to the opposite field this time, and the fastball came and I did."

A wild pitch during the next at-bat sent Belliard over to third, but the next batter could not take advantage as he struck out swinging.

With two outs, catcher Frank Yavorosky got a little redemption of his own. Yavorosky committed a throwing error on a dropped third strike in the fifth inning of the game on Thursday, which allowed for Ronnie's to tie things at 2-2.

The Phillies catcher redeemed himself in a big way, smacking a line drive to left field that pushed the lead to 4-2 and gave his pitcher some welcome breathing room.

"We have a very young team this year, and whenever someone makes a mistake we get down on each other, and that brings the whole team down," Yavorosky said. "Being one of the older guys on the team, when I make a mistake that I usually don't, inside I'm beating myself up but, I can't bring the rest of this team down by projecting it.

"I came back today with a lot of focus, and having that second run allows us to do a lot more things with our pitching, and we can allow going after guys because we have that two-run cushion."

Swedberg closed the door a half-inning later with the help of Jon Belliard, who made two critical throws from third on groundouts, which lifted the Phillies to the title series for the first time since 2013, when they won the championship.

"(Yavorosky) made some great calls," Swedberg said. "He was working both sides of the plate and knew their hitters."

Yavorosky, Belliard, LaJoie, and Swedberg were all on that 2013 championship winning team.

Ronnie's entered the series in a tough spot, with star hitter Wally Derosier still recovering from a broken hand. Derosier led the CNEBA, batting over .500, during the regular season, but was not the same at the plate for the playoffs.

Ronnie's ace Ryan Belinskas got the call in the eighth inning and got out of trouble after plunking a pair of batters. He wasn't so fortunate in the ninth, when the Lunenburg bats came through.

"I don't know if Belinskas was fully warmed up; I had to assume that he was," Ronnie's of Worcester manager Mike Nosel said. "He struggled a little bit, hit a couple of guys, but then did find a better location to pitch.

"Veteran hitters know a pitcher struggling to find the strike zone is going to throw it down the middle. His location was up a little bit, and Lunenburg took advantage of that with some good hits."

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